Ryan Whitney said he's in a good place now after being traded by the Ducks to the Edmonton Oilers for Lubomir Visnovsky in a swap of high-priced defensemen with a 2010 sixth-round pick thrown in by the Ducks to make it happen.

The happiness that Whitney is finding these days has been reflected in his play as he's got a goal and three assists along with a plus-3 rating in the 11 games he's played.

"I'm coming here with a real good attitude and I want to be here," he said. "That's all you can ask for. I think I've tried to be a leader here. There it just didn't work."

It certainly didn't work as Whitney struggled mightily under an increased role the Ducks put on him when they dealt away Chris Pronger last summer.

Not only were the points not there that they expected — four goals and 24 assists in 62 games — but Whitney never fit into Coach Randy Carlyle's style of play. One of the sources of Carlyle's frustration was Whitney's unwillingness to shoot from the point.

Whitney reflected on his relationship with Carlyle, telling the Edmonton Sun that "I think kind of from the day I got there, Randy didn't like me very much. It's not that he didn't like me as a guy, but I don't think he liked me as a player."

"It's kind of pretty self-explanatory," Whitney elaborated Friday. "I'm there for a little while and there were things he didn't like about my game. And I get traded. It's not too hard to figure out on his end and (General Manager) Bob Murray's end that I wasn't what they hoped for.

"I thought Randy and I had a pretty good relationship. I think it was just hockey. Hockey wise, I wasn't what they thought I was or what they hoped I was."

Carlyle said Whitney was more of a give-and-go type of player on the half-wall, which they already head in Scott Niedermayer and that "we were kind of at loggerheads about that in trying to find the right position for him up top."

As for Whitney's comments about him, Carlyle replied, "If that's the way he felt, then that's too bad. That's the way I deal with it.

"He got to play in numerous situations. He got every opportunity in our minds to prove what he was worth. It wasn't a case of dumping Ryan Whitney. We had to spend a Ryan Whitney to get a Visnovsky. I don't look at that as anything more than it's a hockey trade."

But it was an eventful reunion as Whitney took exception to Troy Bodie riding him into the Ducks' bench midway through the third period, picking up a slashing penalty in the process that eventually turned into a Corey Perry goal in a 3-2 victory.

Whitney and Bodie got into it again near the defenseman's old teammates at the end of the game, with Whitney barking at Carlyle and picking up a 10-minute misconduct.

"We weren't unfriendly when he was with us," Bodie said. "I think he was just unhappy with the hit. It was a clean hit so I'm not too worried about it."

Said Whitney afterward: "He rode me into the bench a little hard. I don't have anything against him. I have a lot of friends on that team."

NHL debut

Nick Bonino got the butterflies out when he took the opening faceoff and then any remaining nerves he might have had were knocked out by Oilers defenseman Dean Arsene later in the first period.

"I'd imagined I'd get hit pretty good in one of these games," Bonino said. "I'm happy it happened in my first one. I'll go from there and know what to expect."

Bonino got his welcome-to-the-NHL moment and then held his own in his debut as he played 13 minutes, 39 seconds and had one shot on goal as he filled in for an injured Ryan Getzlaf.

The recent signee out of Boston University made an impression on Carlyle.

"He was not overwhelmed in any situation," Carlyle said. "That's always a positive for a young player."

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